"A device was strapped to the woman's body," said Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "She was told that it was explosives and she was ordered to go into the bank, take out all the money. She did do that in fear for her life."

"While she was inside the bank, there were other employees present. She explained to them what was happening," Parker said. "She took the money out of the bank and threw it out the door to the bank robbers."

The ski mask wearing thieves fled with the money in a two-door car, possibly a white Kia, according to KABC.

The bank manager was left with the device on her and authorities called a bomb squad. Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators and FBI agents, including bomb technicians, responded to the scene.

The device was removed from the woman and detonated by a bomb robot, according to authorities.

"A device left on the bank employee's person was rendered safe by a Sheriff's bomb squad and further investigation is ongoing, to include search for suspects," the FBI's L.A. office wrote in a statement.

The two robbers are still on the loose.

The tactic of strapping bombs to people in order to extort or steal money has been tried before.

In August 2011, 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver of Australia was trapped in her house with a device around her neck that she was told was an explosive. She spent 10 hours attached to the device before it was determined to be fake.

Her father is the chief executive of a software company called Appen Butler Hill that specializes in voice recognition software, fueling speculation that she was the victim of an attempted extortion plot.

In 2003, a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man named Brian Wells was involved in a bomb plot and bank robbery that resulted in his own death. Wells thought he was an accomplice of the men planning the bank robbery and that the device strapped to him would be a fake.

Wells was instructed to rob the bank and tell police that the device was forced onto him and that he was a hostage. However, the bomb turned out to be real and killed Wells when it detonated.